Japan PM Abe: ‘All options on the table’ with N Korea

As US President Donald Trumparrives in Tokyo on Sunday, he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are expected to act in lockstep in terms of their messaging on North Korea – nuclear weapons and missile development are entirely unacceptable and “all options are on the table” in terms of how this threat may be met.

The political phrase “all options on the table”, of course, encompasses the possibility that the United States and Japan might jointly launch an aggressive military attack on North Korea, which they would portray as being “pre-emptive” in light of the many verbal threats that have already been issued by the regime of Kim Jong-un. At a personal level, Abe hardly needs Washington to push him into a hardline stance vis-a-vis North Korea (or China or even South Korea for that matter) because his hawkishness towards mainland Asian neighbours has been part of his political trademark throughout his career. At times, he has associated with even some of the more fringe elements of the Japanese hard right…